


Cinders

by talkingtothesky



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-22
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:08:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3220130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkingtothesky/pseuds/talkingtothesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/806660">Do Me A Favour</a>. In which Gene finds out what happened to Sam's leg, and more besides.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cinders

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Little_Cello](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Cello/gifts).



The next week Sam came in with a broken arm to match. Gene immediately stormed over to him.   
  
"Don't start." Sam said, fiercely, though he looked utterly wretched. He was lucky it was his left arm and his right leg, or he'd be having an even harder time using his crutches.   
  
"You look like you should be in a wheelchair," Gene observed, without any trace of sarcasm or mocking.   
  
Sam had clearly been expecting outright ridicule - his mouth was already open on a snarky retort before he realised Gene was serious and his gob snapped shut.  
  
"You can't work like this. Why are you here?"  
  
"Because I can't just sit there feeling sorry for myself while the city falls to bits! I'm heavily medicated, sure, but I've solved cases like that before. You said yourself I should keep a stack of drugs handy."  
  
"That's not...what did you do to yourself this time, anyway?"  
  
Sam looked down at the floor. "Nothing."  
  
A creeping sense of unease was coming over Gene. "Tyler, are there people after you? Did you piss someone off you haven't told me about?" Two mysterious accidents in such a short period of time...Gene imagined a gang of thugs coming and finding Sam once a week and breaking another of his bones because he wouldn't give them what they wanted. It made his blood boil.  
  
"No, no! Nothing like that."  
  
"Then why can't you tell me?"  
  
"It's complicated."  
  
"If you tell me, I can help you sort it."  
  
Sam laughed, hollowly. "You can't."  
  
\---  
  
Two days later Gene got a call from the hospital.   
  
"I'm his DCI." He told the doctor who was in charge of looking after Sam. "And best mate." He added, when the bespectacled man looked sceptical. "Any family?"   
  
Gene shook his head, pursed his lips. "No."  
  
The doc hemmed and hawed for a bit, then left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a fat folder full of x-rays, which he stuck up on light boxes on the wall. There were a lot of them. Gene could hardly believe his eyes. Both his arms and one of his legs, nearly all of his ribs, his left collarbone were all broken. There were tiny fracture lines making a web over his skull.   
  
"Has he ever been in a car accident?" The doc wanted to know.  
  
Gene took a deep, confused breath. "He...had a bump on the 'ead, day he came to work for me. But he was...I..."  
  
 _I punched him in the gut and shoved him into a filing cabinet_  Gene thought, staring at Sam's broken ribs. But that was months ago. If he'd done that...they ought to have healed by now. All of a sudden he remembered twisting Sam's arm behind his back and putting him on his knees outside the station on his second day at work. Was he staring at these x-rays and seeing all his punches writ large? But they couldn't be. Sam had been fine until last week.  
  
\---  
  
It should have been impossible, with all the painkillers they had him on. But Sam was, as ever, determined to be contrary. He woke up and stared at Gene, perfectly lucidly.  
  
"What the  _hell_ , Tyler." Gene said, tightly, gripping a hipflask so hard his knuckles were cramping.  
  
"I had a car accident." Sam rasped.  
  
" _When?_ " Somehow Gene knew the answer wasn't yesterday. The doctor had said the breaks looked old. Years old. And they'd only just appeared.  
  
"In 2006. I was in a coma." Ah, that old chestnut again. Clearly the meds had scrambled what was left of his brains. Except... "And then I died. I jumped off the roof to get back to the tunnel to save you. My injuries..." Sam appeared to swallow around a hard lump in his throat. "Are bleeding through from the future."  
  
Gene stared at him in horror. "Bullshit."  
  
Sam scrabbled for the corner of a blanket. Gene jerked forward in his seat and loosely grasped Sam's wrist to stop him. No way was he letting him try to go running off again in this state. The skin was alarmingly clammy to the touch.  
  
"No." Sam said, and awkwardly extricated his hand. Gene was too worried about hurting him to hold on any tighter. "Just watch."  
  
He peeled back the covers, exposing his pale legs, one still in a cast. Gene turned his head away, not wanting to see. Then Sam gave a little moan of pain and Gene froze and forced himself.  
  
Before Gene's eyes, Sam's other leg started to break. His ankle twisted around all by itself.   
  
Two hours later he was in a coma.


End file.
